The Criminal Defense Clinic at Yale affords students the opportunity to represent, under faculty supervision, indigent clients who are charged with criminal violations in the New Haven Superior Court.  The clinic is a full-year offering that consists of two semester-long courses.  The first semester is a seminar entitled Criminal Defense: Theory and Practice, which serves as a prerequisite for enrolling in the second semester offering.  The Theory and Practice seminar explores and critiques the fundamentals of zealous, client-centered criminal defense advocacy, analyzes the relevant ethical rules and norms that organize and define the criminal defense lawyer’s conduct, and applies theory to practice by focusing on how a defense lawyer develops a theory of the case from particular factual predicates, and how a defense lawyer frames a motions practice under the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments.

The second semester focuses primarily on fieldwork, although a weekly seminar is required.  In the seminar, students will receive skills training that will equip them with the tools necessary to competently, diligently, and ethically represent their clients.  The seminar portion also will include robust discussions of case theory and the requisites of good investigation in individual cases.  The fieldwork component will allow students to represent clients in all aspects of a criminal prosecution from the initial hearing of a detained client to the acquittal or sentencing.  Such representation will include client interviews and counseling, investigation, development of defense theories, preparation for and participation in adversary hearings and/or motion hearings, plea negotiations, and representation at trial or plea hearings, as appropriate.  Between 8 and 12 students are enrolled each semester.